NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL AND EUROPEAN UNION’S INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES RELEASE REPORT ON PROSPECTS FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Global governance—the collective management of common problems at the international level—is at a critical juncture, according to a new report released today, issued jointly by the ODNI’s National Intelligence Council (NIC) and the European Union’s Institute for Security Studies (EUISS). The report, Global Governance 2025—a follow-on to the NIC’s 2008 report, Global Trends 2025—posits that the growing number of issues on the international agenda, and their complexity, is outpacing the ability of international organizations and national governments to address these challenges.
The report concludes that three effects of rapid globalization are driving demands for more effective global governance: 1) economic interdependence; 2) the interconnected nature of the challenges on the international agenda; and 3) interwoven domestic and foreign challenges.
According to the report, more effective global governance is critical to addressing “threats such as ethnic conflicts, infectious diseases, and terrorism as well as a new generation of global challenges including climate change, energy security, food and water scarcity, international migration flows and new technologies,” which are increasingly taking center stage.
Complicating the prospects for effective global governance over the next 15 years, however, is the shift to a multipolar world, particularly the shift in power toward nonstate actors. The report’s authors note that, “Diverse perspectives and suspicions about global governance, which is seen as a Western concept, will add to the difficulties of effectively mastering the growing number of challenges.”